Podcasts about The Byrds

W latach 40 ubiegłego wieku, w Ameryce przyszła moda na muzykę folkową. Zaczęło się od zespołu The Weavers (pol. Tkacze), który w 1950 roku jako pierwszy w historii umieścił folkową piosenkę na pierwszym miesjcu listy Billboard. Wokół The Weavers powstało grono zespołów i, powiedzmy, bardów popularyzujących ludową muzykę Amerykanów. Moda rozwijała się nieśpiesznie, w obiegu kawiarnianym i uczelnianym. Do głównego nurtu z tego czasu przebili się w zasadzie tylko Odetta i Harry Belafonte. Zjawisko zostało nazwane American Folk Revival. Środowisko folkowców wywodziło się i działało głównie na uniwersytetach, było zdecydowanie lewicowe. Kiedy w latach 50' kraj ogarnęła fala makkartyzmu, folk trafił na cenzurowane, został zepchnięty do podziemia. Pete Seeger i Lee Hays z The Weavers stanęli nawet w 1955 przed Komisją Izby Reprezentantów ds. Działalności Antyamerykańskiej. Mimo to, jeszcze w tym samym roku właśnie Seeger z kolegami dali sygnał do rozpoczęcia drugiej fali odrodzenia folkowego. W wigilę bożego narodzenia The Weavers dali porywający koncert w Carnegie Hall. Wydany 2 lata później album z tego koncertu był jedną z najlepiej sprzedających się płyt roku. A w 1958 roku powstała grupa Kingston Trio, która zaczęła nagrywać covery piosenek Tkaczy. Ich płyty sprzedawały się rewelacyjnie. Posypały się nagrody. Odnieśli niesłychany sukces komercyjny. W ich ślady poszły inne zespoły, takie jak Peter Paul and Marry, The Chad Mitchel Trio, Brothers Four. Folk trafił na szczyt trafił i rozgościł się w głównym nurcie muzyki. Jeszcze w „kawiarnianych” czasach odrodzenia folkowego, młoda piosenkarka Niela Halleck (później po mężu Horn Miller) napisała i wykonywała piosenkę "Baby, Please Don't Go to Town". Rzecz o dziewczynie, która idzie się zabawić, a autorka ostrzega ją przed konsekwencjami. Niela spotykała się z muzykiem Billym Robertsem. Wkrótce Billy podczas swoich gigów zaczął wykonywać własną piosenkę - „Hey Joe”. Tu mamy historię wyraźnie nawiązującą do tekstu Nieli, z tym że historia jest już o chłopaku, który zabił dziewczynę przyłapaną na zabawie z innym. Ten sam tekst (no prawie) śpiewał Hendrix, ale melodia, aranżacja jeszcze żywo przypomina dzieło Nieli. Nie przeszkodziło to Billowi zarezerwować praw do piosenki. I do dzisiaj występuje jako autor. Neila dwukrotnie próbowała dochodzić swoich praw ale zrezygnowała. W międzyczasie pojawiali się jeszcze muzycy, którzy przedstawiali inne pochodzenie piosenki, inne źródła inspiracji (też oczywiście folkowe), czasem podawali się za autorów, ale wersja tutaj przedstawiona ma chyba ma najwięcej zwolenników. Muzycznie i tekstowo się broni. Hey Joe we wczesnych latach 60 był często grywany na klubowych scenach. To głównie za przyczyną Davida Crosbiego i The Byrds, którzy spopularyzowali piosenkę wśród muzyków zachodniego wybrzeża. Najbardziej znana była wersja zespołu The Leaves, przez dziewięć tygodni utrzymywała się na listach przebojów. Aż pojawił się młody czarnoskóry gitarzysta Jimmy Hendrix i wszystkie dotychczasowe wersje piosenki zepchnął na margines. Jego wersja Hey Joe była genialna, niepowtarzalna, wręcz ikoniczna, kto dziś pamięta o pozostałych. Audycja zawiera utwory: “Stairway To Heaven” (w tle), wyk. Soren Madsen muzyka: Jimmy Page “Baby, Please Don't Go to Town”, wyk. Niela Miller, słowa i muzyka: Niela Miller “Hey Joe”, wyk. Billy Roberts, słowa i muzyka: Billy Roberts „Hey Joe” wyk. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, słowa i muzyka: Billy Roberts „Norwegian Wood” (w tle) wyk. Herbie Hancock, muzyka: John Lennon, Paul McCartney „Norwegian Wood” wyk. Tim O'Brien, słowa i muzyka: John Lennon, Paul McCartney

Bob Merlis ran the Warner Bros. publicity department for much of his 29 years at the label, and he has tales to tell. He recalls his adventures as a Columbia University student presenting concerts by the Byrds and others, as well as his rock journalist stint, his encounter with “supernova” Little Richard and a classic misunderstanding with the Carpenters. Soon he was working with Dion DiMucci, ZZ Top, Debbie Gibson, Talking Heads, Devo, the B-52's, the BoDeans, Madonna, R.E.M. and many others. Which act was the beneficiary of “the cheapest promo in the history of Warner Bros”? Who reacted hostilely to his publicity ideas? Who was especially cool? How did the label vibe change? After Merlis left Warner Brothers, what was Chris Isaak's valuable advice? And what role did late Rolling Stones/Beatles manager Allen Klein play in Merlis's next act?

Send us a textOn this Episode Tom and Bert discuss the "Famous" California Session Musicians known as "The Wrecking Crew"!During the infancy years of Rock n Roll Music way back in the 1950's and 1960's many of the major Recording Labels like Columbia, Capital and Warner Brothers were trying to record great music tracks at their sound studios. Since many of the U.S.A. Acts were out west in Los Angeles the Label Managers wanted to enhance the recordings of many of the groups and bands so they decided to hire session musicians or as we would say "Real Pro's".... to lay down the "Music" and record with the artists.That's where the "Wrecking Crew" created their magic and excelled!  It shows the impact that this group of pro's had on such artists as The Beach Boys, The Mama's and Papa's, Sonny and Cher, The Byrds, The 5th Dimension, John Denver, Elvis, The 4 Tops, The Supremes, Simon and Garfunkel and Stevie Wonder and many, many more.Here is their Story!CHAPTERS:(:55) Intro - The Music behind the "Hits"(1:12) Here are the Wrecking Crew!(14:15) Notable Songs recorded with the "Crew"(21:23) 100 MORE songs and our comments(34:14) Netflix' 2014 Movie Documentary ---MUST see TV!(37:51) Billboard Magazine's Top Artists Charts, Music Facts and Trivia and that's a Wrap!!Enjoy the Show!You can email us at reeldealzmoviesandmusic@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page, Reel Dealz Podcast: Movies & Music Thru The Decades to leave comments and/or TEXT us at 843-855-1704 as well

Discograffiti is the deep-dive podcast for music obsessives.  In this episode, we feature the next entry in The Chuck Granata Pet Sounds Interview Series. It's Chuck's chat with re-issue genius Bob Irwin. Bob and his wife Mary started the Sundazed Music label in 1989. The first Sundazed releases were The Great Lost Knickerbockers Album! by The Knickerbockers and Western Union by The Five Americans, and reflected Irwin's personal preference for garage rock and surf music. His skill at restoring old vinyl records for the (then new) CD format attracted the attention of major labels, who increasingly solicited him to help them re-issue material from their back catalogs. He also helped Sony Music release their archival Legacy Records label. Later, his restoration work included early material by the likes of Bob Dylan, Nancy Sinatra, & The Byrds. In this episode, Bob discusses his relationship with Pet Sounds, its standing in the pantheon no matter how many times you've heard it, its importance and influence on music in general, and the wonders of a technology with inherent, imposed limitations. There'll be a short sneak peak running publicly for free, but the entirety of this podcast will only be accessible on the Major Tier of Discograffiti's Patreon. Don't miss it, or you'll only be getting part of the story. Get it as a one-off, or better yet just subscribe…and then we'll all have world peace. Full Episode: Patreon.com/Discograffiti (available on the Major Tier & up) Free Sneak Peek: linktr.ee/discograffiti Subscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week!) of must-hear binge-listening. It's completely free to be a basic member, $1 to get your backstage pass, $5/month for the weekly Sunday show by & for our community, $10 for weekly early release, ad-free, super-extended Director's Cuts of the main show plus access to half our Patreon episode archive, & $20 for Discograffiti's weekly bonus episodes and access to our entire Patreon episode archive. There are now over 400 Patreon episodes.

Den amerikanske gruppe The Byrds, blev dannet i Californien i 1964, med Roger McGuinn som eneste gennemgående medlem. Selvom deres popularitet og storhedstid var kortvarig i midten af 60'erne, havde de kæmpe indflydelse på deres samtid og eftertid. The Byrds kendetegn var McGuinn's 12 strengede Rickenbacker og deres vokalharmonier.

On Sunday night at a Market Basket in West Bridgewater two sisters attempted to shoplift, some of the finer things from the EBT list. Lobster and truffle butter were amongst those items.  Visit the Howie Carr Radio Network website to access columns, podcasts, and other exclusive content.

The Beatles, the Beach Boys, Jimmy Page, Sammy Davis Jr., Mahalia Jackson, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis Y Johnny Cash, The Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones, the Byrds, Bob Dylan, the Charlatans y Jefferson Airplane.

223 - Matt Piucci (Rain Parade) In episode 223 of “Have Guitar Will Travel”, presented by Vintage Guitar Magazine, host James Patrick Regan speaks with guitarist Matt Piucci from the band “Rain Parade” In their conversation Matt tells us about his Gretsch Tennessean that he's used for over 40 years. Matt tells us about moving from upstate New York to Chicago and going to school in Minnesota and living in Oakland for the past 40 years and being a fan of the Oakland (soon to be Las Vegas) A's. Matt talks about his side career as a forensic DNA analyst and the small connection that led to his music world. Matt tells us about getting signed by Enigma records in the 80's and his bands Rain Parade's successes. Matt discusses his musical upbringing having older brothers that would take him to shows in Chicago and his love of the Byrds. Matt takes us through how he ended up in LA becoming friends with what would become members of the Bangles and Green on Red and the rest of the Paisley scene that Rain Parade was apart of. Matt describes the band's adventures in the SF Bay Area and how the band ended up based there since its reformation. Matt tells us about his encounters with Country Joe and Neil Young's band, Crazy Horse. Matt discusses his other gear apart from his Gretsch that he's used throughout the years and the one that got away. Matt tells us where he gets his gear repaired. Matt discusses what the bands up too… recordings for record store day and shows in the future and he reflects on the band's successes. To find out more about Matt you can go to his website: rainparadeofficial.com or the bands bandcamp: rainparade.bandcamp.com Please subscribe, like, comment, share and review this podcast! #VintageGuitarMagazine #MattPiucci #RainParade #GretschGuitars #GretschTennessean #JamesPatrickRegan #PaisleyMusicScene #theDeadlies #OaklandAs #haveguitarwilltravelpodcast #HGWT #tourlife Please like, comment, and share this podcast! Download Link

Robert Allen Zimmerman, dit Bob Dylan, est un américain auteur-compositeur-interprète, musicien, peintre, sculpteur, cinéaste et poète, né le 24 mai 1941 à Duluth, dans le Minnesota. Il est l'une des figures majeures de la musique populaire mondiale. ‘'The Cutting Edge'' est un groupe du Sud de la France ,qui rend hommage au célébrissime Artiste qu'est Bob Dylan et à son groupe mythique The Band, cela à travers l'album : A Tribute to Bob Dylan – Vol 1. Remy Marietti, nom de scène Ray Mee, habite Sausset les Pins (13), est un auteur, compositeur Interprète guitariste et harmoniciste, inspiré par le Folk Rock Californien, la musique Country le Country Rock mais aussi par Bob Dylan les Beatles, Cat Stevens ou Lou Reed. Il est le maitre d'œuvre de cet album ‘' A Tribute to Bob Dylan ‘'. Vol 1 qui couvre la carrière de Bob sur la période 1962-1969 qui est sorti en juillet 2025, masterisé aux Americana Blue Coast Studios de Sausset Les Pins. Projet qui a vu le jour sous l'initiative de Jean-Philippe Meresse. L'album s'ouvre avec ‘'Like A Rolling Stone'' qui date de 1965 et qui marque la rupture de Dylan avec sa période Folk acoustique pure. L'album contient une version de Mr Tambourine Man influencée par celle des Byrds,

Chris Hillman, the original bassist of The Byrds, comes on the Goldmine Podcast to talk to staff contributor Lee Zimmerman. As a frequent collaborator with guitarist Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers, Hillman became a key figure in the development of country rock. His work with not only The Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, but also Manassas and the Desert Rose Band, helped define the Americana genre. On this podcast episode, Hillman discusses the past — especially his relationships with Parsons and David Crosby — and what he is up to in the present (the release of a limited-edition, double live album by The Desert Rose Band titled Live at The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discograffiti is the deep-dive podcast for music obsessives.  In this episode, we feature the next entry in The Chuck Granata Pet Sounds Interview Series. It's Chuck's chat with Larry Knechtel, the Wrecking Crew keyboard player and bassist who—along with Brian Wilson & The Beach Boys—has worked with Simon & Garfunkel, Duane Eddy, The Mamas & The Papas, The Monkees, The Doors, The Byrds, The Grass Roots, Elvis Presley, Jerry Garcia, and Billy Joel. He also was a key member of the band Bread. Larry passed away a few years later in 2009, which makes this posthumously released “Chuck Chat” yet another priceless buried treasure.   Here are just a few of the many things that Larry discusses with Discograffiti in this podcast: What he ascertained early on as a studio musician's average career length, which then led to a healthy fear of his phone no longer ringing; His legendary work on Simon & Garfunkel's “Bridge Over Troubled Water”; Besides Brian, the only Beach Boy he says his fellow studio musicians ever saw in the studio along with them; The curse of having perfect pitch; And his friendship with Jim Gordon…not to mention the fate of the 50+ hours of jam tapes that he recorded with him, which included spoken ruminations on what was bugging Jim at the time.  There'll be a short sneak peak running publicly for free, but the entirety of this podcast will only be accessible on the Major Tier of Discograffiti's Patreon. Don't miss it, or you'll only be getting part of the story. Get it as a one-off, or better yet just subscribe…and then we'll all have world peace. Full Episode: Patreon.com/Discograffiti (available on the Major Tier & up) Free Sneak Peek: linktr.ee/discograffiti Subscribe to Discograffiti's Patreon and receive a ceaseless barrage (4 shows a week!) of must-hear binge-listening. It's completely free to be a basic member, $1 to get your backstage pass, $5/month for the weekly Sunday show by & for our community, $10 for weekly early release, ad-free, super-extended Director's Cuts of the main show plus access to half our Patreon episode archive, & $20 for Discograffiti's weekly bonus episodes and access to our entire Patreon episode archive. There are now over 300 Patreon episodes.

  / milltownbrothers     / @themilltownbrothers      / @thegodcast5878   Follow the Milltown Brothers on x@milltownbrosFollow the Label ‪@lnfglasgow‬ Milltown Brothers, (stylised as milltown brothers) are an English indie band from Colne, Lancashire, England.They are best known for the top 40 single "Which Way Should I Jump" and "Here I Stand", which was used as the theme tune to the BBC drama All Quiet on the Preston Front.History and careerEarly releasesIn 1989 the band's first independent release on Big Round Records, was the "Coming From The Mill" EP featuring live favourite "Roses" and the songs "Something On My Mind" and "We've Got Time." The NME magazine tipped Milltown Brothers for stardom in the 1990s.The band's second indie single was "Which Way Should I Jump" backed up by "Silvertown" on the B-side.Matt NelsonA&M years (1990–1993)After the band signed to A&M Records worldwide in 1990, "Which Way Should I Jump?" was re-recorded and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 38. It also reached number 10 in the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock chart.Recorded in Bath in the summer of 1991, the album Slinky followed. It peaked at number 27 in the UK Albums Chart. Q Magazine described it as the "Byrds with hard-edged contemporary pop and upfront vocals"[4] and awarding it a maximum five stars. It was produced by Dave Meegan who had previously worked on the U2 albums, The Joshua Tree and Rattle & Hum.It was placed at #46 by the NME in their 1991 best album of the year list.The next single released from the album was "Here I Stand", which was also used as the theme tune for the BBC television programme, Preston Front.[1] It peaked at number 41 in the UK Singles Chart.[3]In 1993, the single "Turn Off" was released ahead of the band's second album Valve. The album was not as successful as Slinky and the band eventually left the A&M label.A 12-track compilation, The Best Of Milltown Brothers, was issued by Spectrum Music in 1997.Stanley LogoIndependent releasesIt was 10 years before the band worked together again. In March 2004 they released their third studio album, Rubberband. A double CD, it was released on their own label Rubber Band Records and made available on the band's website.In 2009 an extended 17-track retrospective ‘'Milltown Brothers - Best Of'' was released on Cherry Red Records.In the summer of 2015, Milltown Brothers released their fourth album Long Road, which was once again self-released.In 2020 a further album Stockholm[5] featuring eight new songs was released.In 2022 a compilation of independent singles and demos from 1987 to 1990 was released titled Tongue-Tied Mesmerised.Boogie Woogie 20252024–presentThe band began recording their sixth studio album, Boogie Woogie, in the summer of 2024 at Groove Studios in Burnley.The record was released by Last Night from Glasgow in September 2025 on LP, CD, digital download and streaming.On 19th September 2025 the album entered the Official UK Album Charts at #71.It also charted on the Physical Album Chart #66, Vinyl Album Chart #37, Independant Albums Chart #25, Scottish Albums Chart #9 & Album Breakers Chart #4.This marked the first time an album of theirs had entered the top #100 since the 1993 release of Valve.

@Lucio91.9FM te cuenta la historia de esta canción de The Byrds, la cual gracias a las drogas y a la experimentación musical, es una de las precursoras del rock psicodélico.

This week on Classic Vinyl Podcast, Justin and Tyler listen to The Byrds and their 1966 single Eight Miles High. Long considered the first psychedelic rock song of the 60s, how do you think it still holds up today?

In this episode of 'Your Life in America,' host Stanford K Lee welcomes Jasmine and Darius Bryd to discuss their journey into social media content creation. The couple shares their story of meeting in college, transitioning from friends to partners, and eventually becoming parents. They delve into their creative process, the challenges and joys of raising a family while creating content, and how they balance their personal and professional lives. The Byrds also talk about their experiences with social media platforms, the importance of authenticity, and their aspirations for the future.

James is on tour at the moment so we thought we'd take a Wednesday off and drop what is known as an IWOL "all timer". It is somewhat relevant though as we have been discussing The Byrds. Even though this episode is called "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" it's really just us trying to figure out who the hell is in The Byrds for an hour. A sweet side note is that my (Johnny) grandfather died the day this was recorded and the hilarity of this episode really lifted my spirits on a very sad day. Back to your regularly scheduled programming come Sunday. 

SUBSCRIBE TO IMPOSSIBLE WAY OF LIFE ON PATREON TO ACCESS FULL EPISODE https://www.patreon.com/animpossiblewayoflifeThe Vancouver Canucks, The Byrds, Gene Clark, 70s sun baked cinema, Robert Altman, Doucette, Loverboy, Aerosmith, Motley Crue, Bruce Fairbairn, Bob Rock etc...Anything can, and will, happen when Stranglehold comes on the show. One of our fave episodes in a while. 

This week's program features tuneage from It's A Beautiful Day, Pat Metheny, Seatrain, Frank Zappa, ELO,  The Youngbloods, Deodato, Blind Faith, Deodato, Jean Luc Ponty, Iron Butterfly, Phil Collins, Joe Cocker, Python  Lee Jackson, Janis Joplin, The Byrds, Turtles, Monkees, Grass Roots, Beatles, Lovin' Spoonful, Mamas & Papas, Doors, & Gordon  Lightfoot.  

The guitarist and vocalist Roger McGuinn is among the most critically acclaimed and influential American musicians. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and in 2023 he was named one of the “250 Greatest Guitarist” by Rolling Stone magazine.   McGuinn is a co-founder of The Byrds and he's often associated with the West Coast rock scene of the 1960s. But McGuinn is a native of the Midwest and he grew up immersed in the vibrant folk music scene of Chicago during the 1950s. McGuinn began his career recording and performing with folk groups like The Limelighters and Chad Mitchell Trio.  McGuinn rose to national prominence in 1964 when he co-founded The Byrds with David Crosby and Gene Clark. McGuinn's 12 string Rickenbacker guitar was a defining element of the group's sound. The Byrds' 1965 version of Bob Dylan's “Mr. Tambourine Man” hit #1 on the American charts. That same year, their recording of Pete Seeger's “Turn, Turn, Turn” also hit #1, ushering in the folk-rock movement of the mid 1960s.   Over the next few years McGuinn continued to set new trends in rock music. The Byrds' 1966 single “Eight Miles High” brought psychedelic music to the pop charts, and their1968 album “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” sparked the development of country rock. The Byrds broke up in 1973, but McGuinn has continued to record and tour as a solo artist. McGuinn will bring his “Storied and Songs” tour to Carmel, Indiana's Tarkington Theatre on September 13.  In this conversation with WFYI's Kyle Long, McGuinn reflects on his roots in the Chicago folk scene.

Hinter dem Namen Ghostwoman verbirgt sich keineswegs eine ätherische, einzelgängerische Spukerscheinung, sondern vielmehr ein überaus erdig-lebendiges Rock-Duo, bestehend aus Evan Uschenko und Ille van Dessel. Als der kanadische Multiinstrumentalist die trommelnde Belgierin 2023 kennenlernte, war ihm sofort klar, dass beim anfänglich im Alleingang vollführten Werkeln an den Songs eine gewisse Reibungsfläche gefehlt hatte, andererseits die bisherige Live-Quintettbesetzung der 2016 gegründeten Band eher Ballast als Bereicherung darstellte – das Verfolgen der nunmehr geteilten musikalischen Vision war also glasklar ein Fall für genau zwei. Vergangene Woche haben sie ihr neues Album "Welcome To The Civilized World" veröffentlicht, inhaltlich – wie der Sarkasmus ahnen lassende Titel schon andeutet – "inspiriert von der Absurdität menschlichen Verhaltens und dem Zirkus, den wir Leben nennen." Ausgedrückt in Texten, die deren Verfasser und Vorträger Evan freimütig zum großen Teil als "Nonsens" deklariert, in denen er aber mit so großer Dringlichkeit wie abenteuerlicher Grammatik seine Gefühle transportiert, dass sie dennoch alles andere als nichtssagend sind. Obendrein wirken sie hervorragend in Kombination mit dem lakonisch-schnörkellosen Sound des Duos, der sich (bei der Vorab-Single "Alive) genauso von den Byrds und deren zwölfsaitigen Gitarren beeinflusst zeigt, wie er die beiden zum neusten Glied einer hochkarätigen Ahnenreihe macht, der zuvor bereits Gruppen wie The Jesus And Mary Chain, The White Stripes oder auch The Black Keys entsprangen – sicher kein Zufall, dass auch bei jenen oft die Zwei die magische Zahl war.

There’s a famous song by The Byrds called Turn! Turn! Turn! that speaks to the changing seasons of our lives. The lyrics remind us: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” While it’s natural to focus on times of growth and positivity, it’s equally important to honor the seasons of difficulty and loss. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we’ll explore the benefits of fully experiencing each season, whether joyful or painful, and how doing so can help us gain deeper insights into ourselves and strengthen the resilience we need to move through life. Watch https://www.transformationtalkradio.com/watch.html

There’s a famous song by The Byrds called Turn! Turn! Turn! that speaks to the changing seasons of our lives. The lyrics remind us: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” While it’s natural to focus on times of growth and positivity, it’s equally important to honor the seasons of difficulty and loss. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we’ll explore the benefits of fully experiencing each season, whether joyful or painful, and how doing so can help us gain deeper insights into ourselves and strengthen the resilience we need to move through life. Watch https://www.transformationtalkradio.com/watch.html

There’s a famous song by The Byrds called Turn! Turn! Turn! that speaks to the changing seasons of our lives. The lyrics remind us: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” While it’s natural to focus on times of growth and positivity, it’s equally important to honor the seasons of difficulty and loss. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we’ll explore the benefits of fully experiencing each season, whether joyful or painful, and how doing so can help us gain deeper insights into ourselves and strengthen the resilience we need to move through life. Watch https://www.transformationtalkradio.com/watch.html

There’s a famous song by The Byrds called Turn! Turn! Turn! that speaks to the changing seasons of our lives. The lyrics remind us: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” While it’s natural to focus on times of growth and positivity, it’s equally important to honor the seasons of difficulty and loss. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we’ll explore the benefits of fully experiencing each season, whether joyful or painful, and how doing so can help us gain deeper insights into ourselves and strengthen the resilience we need to move through life. Watch https://www.transformationtalkradio.com/watch.html

There’s a famous song by The Byrds called Turn! Turn! Turn! that speaks to the changing seasons of our lives. The lyrics remind us: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” While it’s natural to focus on times of growth and positivity, it’s equally important to honor the seasons of difficulty and loss. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we’ll explore the benefits of fully experiencing each season, whether joyful or painful, and how doing so can help us gain deeper insights into ourselves and strengthen the resilience we need to move through life. Watch https://www.transformationtalkradio.com/watch.html

There’s a famous song by The Byrds called Turn! Turn! Turn! that speaks to the changing seasons of our lives. The lyrics remind us: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” While it’s natural to focus on times of growth and positivity, it’s equally important to honor the seasons of difficulty and loss. In this episode of Get Big Out Loud, we’ll explore the benefits of fully experiencing each season, whether joyful or painful, and how doing so can help us gain deeper insights into ourselves and strengthen the resilience we need to move through life. Watch https://www.transformationtalkradio.com/watch.html

Hinter dem Namen Ghostwoman verbirgt sich keineswegs eine ätherische, einzelgängerische Spukerscheinung, sondern vielmehr ein überaus erdig-lebendiges Rock-Duo, bestehend aus Evan Uschenko und Ille van Dessel. Als der kanadische Multiinstrumentalist die trommelnde Belgierin 2023 kennenlernte, war ihm sofort klar, dass beim anfänglich im Alleingang vollführten Werkeln an den Songs eine gewisse Reibungsfläche gefehlt hatte, andererseits die bisherige Live-Quintettbesetzung der 2016 gegründeten Band eher Ballast als Bereicherung darstellte – das Verfolgen der nunmehr geteilten musikalischen Vision war also glasklar ein Fall für genau zwei. Vergangene Woche haben sie ihr neues Album "Welcome To The Civilized World" veröffentlicht, inhaltlich – wie der Sarkasmus ahnen lassende Titel schon andeutet – "inspiriert von der Absurdität menschlichen Verhaltens und dem Zirkus, den wir Leben nennen." Ausgedrückt in Texten, die deren Verfasser und Vorträger Evan freimütig zum großen Teil als "Nonsens" deklariert, in denen er aber mit so großer Dringlichkeit wie abenteuerlicher Grammatik seine Gefühle transportiert, dass sie dennoch alles andere als nichtssagend sind. Obendrein wirken sie hervorragend in Kombination mit dem lakonisch-schnörkellosen Sound des Duos, der sich (bei der Vorab-Single "Alive) genauso von den Byrds und deren zwölfsaitigen Gitarren beeinflusst zeigt, wie er die beiden zum neusten Glied einer hochkarätigen Ahnenreihe macht, der zuvor bereits Gruppen wie The Jesus And Mary Chain, The White Stripes oder auch The Black Keys entsprangen – sicher kein Zufall, dass auch bei jenen oft die Zwei die magische Zahl war.

Immortalised by Hendrix, ‘Hey Joe' had its roots in 18th century murder ballads, ‘60s folk and rock clubs before the world got to hear it. Jason Schneider unravels its twisted genesis in ‘That Gun In Your Hand', and talks to us here about the miracles that allowed it to happen and the sad fate of Billy Roberts, the man who claimed he wrote it. Along with … … “all pop records are built on the back of other pop records” … the allure of violent songs: “we get our kicks from real-life murder” … the bit-part players in the story – David Crosby, Dino Valenti, Tim Rose, Cass Elliot, the Byrds, the Leaves, the Creation and Bob Dylan … the final twist: how Chas Chandler was looking to make Hey Joe a hit when Linda Keith pointed him at Hendrix … “a song with no chorus and a circle of fifths”: why it was a rock staple alongside Gloria and Louie Louie … the cruel fate of Billy Roberts who never recorded Hey Joy as couldn't bear to give away 50 per cent of the royalties … the girl murders the man? “It's a song still in evolution” … how Andy Summers was the first person to hear Hendrix play in the UK … 1,881 guitarists mass-performed Hey Joe in 2007 but could you even release a version of it now? You can order ‘That Gun In Your Hand: The Strange Saga of Hey Joe and Popular Music's History of Violence' from Anvil Press here: https://www.anvilpress.com/books/that-gun-in-your-hand-the-strange-saga-of-hey-joe-and-popular-musics-history-of-violence And from the US distributor Asterism here: https://asterismbooks.com/product/that-gun-in-your-hand-the-strange-saga-of-hey-joe-and-popular-musics-history-of-violence-jason-schneiderFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine releasing a song and it reshaping the pop music landscape as we know it. A song that makes almost everyone rethink what they're singing, wearing and smoking. Now imagine that song is a cover of a song called "Mr. Tambourine Man" and your band is called The Byrds.

Immortalised by Hendrix, ‘Hey Joe' had its roots in 18th century murder ballads, ‘60s folk and rock clubs before the world got to hear it. Jason Schneider unravels its twisted genesis in ‘That Gun In Your Hand', and talks to us here about the miracles that allowed it to happen and the sad fate of Billy Roberts, the man who claimed he wrote it. Along with … … “all pop records are built on the back of other pop records” … the allure of violent songs: “we get our kicks from real-life murder” … the bit-part players in the story – David Crosby, Dino Valenti, Tim Rose, Cass Elliot, the Byrds, the Leaves, the Creation and Bob Dylan … the final twist: how Chas Chandler was looking to make Hey Joe a hit when Linda Keith pointed him at Hendrix … “a song with no chorus and a circle of fifths”: why it was a rock staple alongside Gloria and Louie Louie … the cruel fate of Billy Roberts who never recorded Hey Joy as couldn't bear to give away 50 per cent of the royalties … the girl murders the man? “It's a song still in evolution” … how Andy Summers was the first person to hear Hendrix play in the UK … 1,881 guitarists mass-performed Hey Joe in 2007 but could you even release a version of it now? You can order ‘That Gun In Your Hand: The Strange Saga of Hey Joe and Popular Music's History of Violence' from Anvil Press here: https://www.anvilpress.com/books/that-gun-in-your-hand-the-strange-saga-of-hey-joe-and-popular-musics-history-of-violence And from the US distributor Asterism here: https://asterismbooks.com/product/that-gun-in-your-hand-the-strange-saga-of-hey-joe-and-popular-musics-history-of-violence-jason-schneiderFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Immortalised by Hendrix, ‘Hey Joe' had its roots in 18th century murder ballads, ‘60s folk and rock clubs before the world got to hear it. Jason Schneider unravels its twisted genesis in ‘That Gun In Your Hand', and talks to us here about the miracles that allowed it to happen and the sad fate of Billy Roberts, the man who claimed he wrote it. Along with … … “all pop records are built on the back of other pop records” … the allure of violent songs: “we get our kicks from real-life murder” … the bit-part players in the story – David Crosby, Dino Valenti, Tim Rose, Cass Elliot, the Byrds, the Leaves, the Creation and Bob Dylan … the final twist: how Chas Chandler was looking to make Hey Joe a hit when Linda Keith pointed him at Hendrix … “a song with no chorus and a circle of fifths”: why it was a rock staple alongside Gloria and Louie Louie … the cruel fate of Billy Roberts who never recorded Hey Joy as couldn't bear to give away 50 per cent of the royalties … the girl murders the man? “It's a song still in evolution” … how Andy Summers was the first person to hear Hendrix play in the UK … 1,881 guitarists mass-performed Hey Joe in 2007 but could you even release a version of it now? You can order ‘That Gun In Your Hand: The Strange Saga of Hey Joe and Popular Music's History of Violence' from Anvil Press here: https://www.anvilpress.com/books/that-gun-in-your-hand-the-strange-saga-of-hey-joe-and-popular-musics-history-of-violence And from the US distributor Asterism here: https://asterismbooks.com/product/that-gun-in-your-hand-the-strange-saga-of-hey-joe-and-popular-musics-history-of-violence-jason-schneiderFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fáilte ar ais chuig eagrán nua de Ar An Lá Seo ar an 27ú lá de mí Lúnasa, liomsa Lauren Ní Loingsigh. I 1976 rinne níos mó ná 2,500 fir óg iarratas chun a bheith mar Gharda. Chruthaigh an rialtas 500 post nua. I 2002 dhiúltaíodh bannaí do dhá dhéagóirí I Luimneach a bhí bainteach le heasaontas sa bhaile. I 1976 fuair Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí conradh nua chun bunscoil nua a thógáil ag Cross. I 1981 chuaigh 20 duine óg ó Inis chuig an Róimh chun bualadh le Pope John Paul. Bhí siad sa ghrúpa de 2,000 duine. Sin Natasha Bedingfield le These Words – an t-amhrán is mó ar an lá seo I 2004. Ag lean ar aghaidh le nuacht cheoil ar an lá seo I 1965 ar an lá deireanach de a briseadh ón turas ceoil – chuaigh The Beatles chuig seisiún taifead do The Byrds. I 2013 ainmnigh Madonna mar an duine cáiliúil a fuair an méid is mó airgead I rith bhliain amháin. Agus ar deireadh breithlá daoine cáiliúla ar an lá seo rugadh aisteoir Aaron Paul I Meiriceá I 1979 agus rudadh aisteoir Chandra Wilson I Meiriceá ar an lá seo I 1969 agus seo chuid de na rudaí a rinne sí. Beidh mé ar ais libh amárach le heagrán nua de Ar An Lá Seo. Welcome back to another edition of Ar An Lá Seo on the 27th of August, with me Lauren Ní Loingsigh 1976: more than 2,500 young men applied for the new 500 Garda positions that were created by the government 2002: 2 limerick teenagers allegedly involved in a long running city feud were denied bail on weapons charges. 1976: The office of public works was awarded the contract for building a new primary school at Cross. 1981: 20 Young People from Ennis were among 2,000 members of the Irish Youth Pilgrimage to Rome, which met with Pope John Paul. That was Natasha Bedingfield with These Words – the biggest song on this day in 2004 Onto music news on this day In 1965 On the last day of a five-day break from their North American tour, The Beatles attended a recording session for The Byrds. 2013 Madonna was named the world's top-earning celebrity over the past year. And finally celebrity birthdays on this day – actor Aaron Paul was born in America in 1979 and actress Chandra Wilson was born in America on this day in 1969 and this is some of the stuff she has done. I'll be back with you tomorrow with another edition of Ar An Lá Seo.

TVC 703.3: From August 2018: Chuck Harter joins Ed for Part 2 of our look at the era of pop music TV shows from the mid to late 1960s. Topics this segment include The Lloyd Thaxton Show, a popular weekday afternoon show featuring teenagers dancing to hit records, plus guest appearances by such top artists as The Byrds, The Turtles, Jan and Dean, and Sonny and Cher. Originally produced for local television in Los Angeles, The Lloyd Thaxton Show became nationally syndicated in 1964.

Pamela Des Barres, born in California, emerged from the 1960s Los Angeles rock scene as both participant and witness. Introduced to Captain Beefheart in high school, she soon immersed herself in the vast Los Angeles demimonde, befriending and dating musicians from The Byrds to Led Zeppelin. With Frank Zappa's guidance, she co-founded the performance collective the GTOs, documenting her experiences in diaries that became the foundation of her seminal memoir I'm With the Band. She later married rocker Michael Des Barres—also known to television audiences for his role as the assassin Murdoc on MacGyver. Pamela herself went on to publish multiple books and establish a career as an author, teacher, and chronicler of rock history, in her role as the definitive voice of the “groupie.”

Jojo was a man who put out a new album, so he came back on the show...We also begin our journey into The Byrds' family tree of bands. Quite possibly the greatest in all of classic rock. 

Welcome to PTBN Pop's Video Jukebox Song of The Day! Every weekday will be featuring a live watch of a great and memorable music video. On today's episode, Steve Riddle is watching “Turn! Turn! Turn!” by The Byrds from 1965.   The YouTube link for the video is below so you can watch along! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3xgcmIS3YU

It's a buck dancer's choice my friendBetter take my adviceYou know all the rules by nowAnd the fire from the ice"No Buck dancing here, just 2 hours of terrific tunes on this week's Super Sounds Of The 70's. Please join me for a brief trip "Back o The Garden". Joining us are Joni Mitchell, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Byrds, Doors, Eagles, Jackson Browne, The James Gang, Guess Who, Bobby Darin, America, The Charlie Daniels Band, Humble Pie, Loggins & Messina, Crosby Stills & Nash, Jethro Tull, The Youngbloods, Doobie Brothers, Blood Sweat & Tears, Little River Band, Jimmy Buffett and The Grateful Dead.

En 2008 se lanzó el disco de los Byrds “Live at Royal Albert Hall” (Sundazed). Un concierto registrado el 13 de mayo en 1971 en el legendario local londinense que había permanecido más de tres décadas guardado en el garaje de Roger McGuinn. La actuación recoge a la última formación de la banda -y también la más duradera- con McGuinn a la voz, guitarra y banjo, Clarence White a la segunda guitarra y la sección rítmica de Skip Battin al bajo y Gene Parsons a la batería.Playlist (todas las canciones de “Live at Royal Albert Hall” salvo donde indicado);THE BYRDS “Lover of the bayou”THE BYRDS “You ain’t goin' nowere”THE BYRDS “Truck stop girl”THE BYRDS “My back pages”THE BYRDS “Baby what you want me to do”THE BYRDS “Black mountain rag / Soldier’s joy”THE BYRDS “Pretty boy floyd”THE BYRDS “Take a whiff on me”THE BYRDS “Chesnut mare”THE BYRDS “Jesus is just alright”THE BYRDS “So you want to be a rock'n'roll star”THE BYRDS “Mr Spaceman”THE BYRDS “Nashville West”THE BYRDS “Amazing grace”THE BYRDS “Medley; Turn turn turn, Mr Tambourine man, Eight miles high” (Live at the Fillmore, 1969)Escuchar audio

Episodio mensual dedicado a recordar canciones que alcanzaron su puesto más alto en las listas pop de EEUU en este mismo mes de hace 60 años.(Foto del podcast; Sonny and Cher)Playlist;(sintonía) BERT KAEMPFTER and HIS ORCHESTRA “Moon over Naples” (top 59)HERMAN’S HERMITS “I’m Henry VIII, I am” (top 1)SONNY and CHER “I got you babe” (top 1)THE BYRDS “All I really want to do” (top 40)THE BEAU BRUMMELS “You tell me why” (top 38)THE BEACH BOYS “California girls” (top 3)THE LETTERMEN “Theme from a summer place” (top 16)LEE DORSEY “Ride your pony” (top 28)THE STRANGELOVES “I want candy” (top 11)SAM THE SHAM “Ju ju hand” (top 26)LESLEY GORE “Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows” (top 13)FREDDIE and THE DREAMERS “A little you” (top 48)THE DAVE CLARK FIVE “I like it like that” (top 7)THE SEARCHERS “He’s got no love” (top 79)THE FOUR TOPS “It’s the same old song” (top 5)THE SPINNERS “I’ll will always love you” (top 35)DEE DEE WARWICK “We’re doing fine” (top 96)THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS “Unchained melody” (top 4)JACKIE WILSON “No pity (in the naked city)” (top 59)Escuchar audio

"Here, am I floating 'round my tin canFar, above the moonPlanet Earth is blueAnd there's nothing I can do"Here we are 56 years later and in my opinion, still man's greatest achievement. Please join me in a brief tribute to Apollo 11 landing on the Moon, July 20, 1969. Joining us are Cactus, Elton John, ,The Moody Blues, Byrds, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Jethro Tull, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, Mott The Hoople, Pink Floyd, Al Stewart, J. Geils Band, Crosby Stills, Nash & Young, Foghat, Rufus, The Hollies, Velvet Underground and David Bowie.

I will sit still in deep contemplation, Looking back on all I've done. Forgiving myself and forgiving the other, As in the end we all are one.  ☉The whole issue of right and wrong that I discuss in this week's report goes very deep and can trigger a lot of judgment. A person may think they have done nothing "wrong," and maybe they didn't, but maybe they are lying to themselves and/or are blind to or denying the effects of their actions (Neptune). Restorative justice speaks to any harm being done to another person. We may not have done anything "wrong" but our actions could still have caused harm to another person (and vice versa) and we are therefore accountable to that person to do our best to help heal their wound. I like the approach of Nonviolent Communication that speaks to people creating "bad strategies" to get their needs met that end up hurting other people. In this paradigm the person is not "bad," but has used "bad" means to attain their end. No matter how we look at it, everyone is responsible for what they've put out in the world and Saturn never forgets. It may take him 28 years (or more) to bring things back round but he's in no hurry. Look how long the Middle East has been at war! So, it's not a matter of "hurry up and fix it." It's a matter of uncovering layer after layer of our psyche to see down into the root of ourselves and our motivations. My feeling is that most everything nasty that people do is based upon a sense of lack. We're not enough, don't have enough, are missing or got ripped off of this, that, or the other thing/person/experience. We need more money, sex, power, recognition, you name it... This sense of lack comes at the moment of birth when they cut the umbilical cord. It is profound. There is an empty void created that can really only be filled with "Spirit." However, Spirit is in all that is! So go figure! Besides "spirits," (alcohol), their are nature spirits, daimons, angelic spirits, dark spirits, "dead" spirits, there's spirits all over, in and through this place. It's simply that there are some spirits that are more healthy for us than others. If we don't fill our emptiness with healthy spirits, we can stay hungry, greedy, lustful, depraved, etc. and take actions that harm other people. So this time/year of reckoning that we are in is an excellent time to review our strategies with an aim to fill our life experience with healthy spirits thereby letting go of old bad habit patterns that filled the emptiness in the past. Here's to some new healthy habits with Mars in Virgo! This week's song "My Back Pages" by the Byrds!  https://youtu.be/dOqnk4HPwVE?si=GadzaAxwnVmlWiqXOh!  And check out Trevor Noah for a comedian!  https://youtu.be/d-FLVcgZzGs?si=d-XkZ7cqiXVU9cegSo Much Love,Kaypacha

(S$-30) Bob Dylan – John Wesley Harding (Columbia Records) Released: December 27, 1967 Recording Dates: October 17, November 6, and November 29, 1967John Wesley Harding marks Bob Dylan's striking return in 1967 after his motorcycle accident, showcasing a stark shift from his electric, surreal phase to a stripped-down, country-folk sound. Recorded quickly in Nashville with minimal instrumentation, the album's sparse arrangements heighten its moral allegories, biblical imagery, and Old West themes. Songs like “All Along the Watchtower” and “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” resonate with haunting simplicity, while “Dear Landlord” and “I'll Be Your Baby Tonight” hint at Dylan's coming embrace of country. The record's understated style stood in deliberate contrast to the psychedelic excesses of its time, influencing The Band, The Byrds, and future Americana artists. Dylan's newfound restraint, poetic songwriting, and subtle musicianship resulted in one of his most cohesive works, earning critical acclaim and commercial success. John Wesley Harding remains a timeless, genre-defining album that helped shape roots rock and alt-country.Signature Tracks: John Wesley Harding, I Went Out One Morning, All Along The Watchtower Full Album: YouTube  Spotify Playlist:   YouTube   Spotify

In this episode, Jock Bartley, founding member and guitarist of the legendary 1970s soft rock band Firefall, joins the show to discuss the band's storied career, including hits like "You Are the Woman" and "Just Remember I Love You." Bartley shares insights on Firefall's latest albums, Friends & Family and Friends & Family 2, which feature covers of classic songs by bands like Fleetwood Mac and The Byrds, reflecting their deep musical connections. Jock was a funny, laid back guy with tons of insight on the music industry to share.     In one of the craziest episodes to date, we dive deep into Mike's voices, a pretzel story, a game about the Burlew household, and Mike needing his dad, Big Wild Hank's help, only to be gifted rotten chicken.  Insane episode.  Have a listen!

For those who haven't heard the announcement I posted, songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the second part of a two-episode look at the song “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?” by Fairport Convention, and the intertwining careers of Joe Boyd, Sandy Denny, and Richard Thompson. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-one-minute bonus episode available, on Judy Collins’ version of this song. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by editing, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Erratum For about an hour this was uploaded with the wrong Elton John clip in place of “Saturday Sun”. This has now been fixed. Resources Because of the increasing problems with Mixcloud’s restrictions, I have decided to start sharing streaming playlists of the songs used in episodes instead of Mixcloud ones. This Tunemymusic link will let you listen to the playlist I created on your streaming platform of choice — however please note that not all the songs excerpted are currently available on streaming. The songs missing from the Tidal version are “Shanten Bells” by the Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” by A.L. Lloyd, two by Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, three by Elton John & Linda Peters, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow” by Sandy Denny and “You Never Know” by Charlie Drake, but the other fifty-nine are there. Other songs may be missing from other services. The main books I used on Fairport Convention as a whole were Patrick Humphries' Meet On The Ledge, Clinton Heylin's What We Did Instead of Holidays, and Kevan Furbank's Fairport Convention on Track. Rob Young's Electric Eden is the most important book on the British folk-rock movement. Information on Richard Thompson comes from Patrick Humphries' Richard Thompson: Strange Affair and Thompson's own autobiography Beeswing.  Information on Sandy Denny comes from Clinton Heylin's No More Sad Refrains and Mick Houghton's I've Always Kept a Unicorn. I also used Joe Boyd's autobiography White Bicycles and Chris Blackwell's The Islander.  And this three-CD set is the best introduction to Fairport's music currently in print. Transcript Before we begin, this episode contains reference to alcohol and cocaine abuse and medical neglect leading to death. It also starts with some discussion of the fatal car accident that ended last episode. There’s also some mention of child neglect and spousal violence. If that’s likely to upset you, you might want to skip this episode or read the transcript. One of the inspirations for this podcast when I started it back in 2018 was a project by Richard Thompson, which appears (like many things in Thompson’s life) to have started out of sheer bloody-mindedness. In 1999 Playboy magazine asked various people to list their “songs of the Millennium”, and most of them, understanding the brief, chose a handful of songs from the latter half of the twentieth century. But Thompson determined that he was going to list his favourite songs *of the millennium*. He didn’t quite manage that, but he did cover seven hundred and forty years, and when Playboy chose not to publish it, he decided to turn it into a touring show, in which he covered all his favourite songs from “Sumer Is Icumen In” from 1260: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Sumer is Icumen In”] Through numerous traditional folk songs, union songs like “Blackleg Miner”, pieces by early-modern composers, Victorian and Edwardian music hall songs, and songs by the Beatles, the Ink Spots, the Kinks, and the Who, all the way to “Oops! I Did It Again”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Oops! I Did it Again”] And to finish the show, and to show how all this music actually ties together, he would play what he described as a “medieval tune from Brittany”, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”] We have said many times in this podcast that there is no first anything, but there’s a reason that Liege and Lief, Fairport Convention’s third album of 1969, and the album other than Unhalfbricking on which their reputation largely rests, was advertised with the slogan “The first (literally) British folk rock album ever”. Folk-rock, as the term had come to be known, and as it is still usually used today, had very little to do with traditional folk music. Rather, the records of bands like The Byrds or Simon and Garfunkel were essentially taking the sounds of British beat groups of the early sixties, particularly the Searchers, and applying those sounds to material by contemporary singer-songwriters. People like Paul Simon and Bob Dylan had come up through folk clubs, and their songs were called folk music because of that, but they weren’t what folk music had meant up to that point — songs that had been collected after being handed down through the folk process, changed by each individual singer, with no single identifiable author. They were authored songs by very idiosyncratic writers. But over their last few albums, Fairport Convention had done one or two tracks per album that weren’t like that, that were instead recordings of traditional folk songs, but arranged with rock instrumentation. They were not necessarily the first band to try traditional folk music with electric instruments — around the same time that Fairport started experimenting with the idea, so did an Irish band named Sweeney’s Men, who brought in a young electric guitarist named Henry McCullough briefly. But they do seem to have been the first to have fully embraced the idea. They had done so to an extent with “A Sailor’s Life” on Unhalfbricking, but now they were going to go much further: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves” (from about 4:30)] There had been some doubt as to whether Fairport Convention would even continue to exist — by the time Unhalfbricking, their second album of the year, was released, they had been through the terrible car accident that had killed Martin Lamble, the band’s drummer, and Jeannie Franklyn, Richard Thompson’s girlfriend. Most of the rest of the band had been seriously injured, and they had made a conscious decision not to discuss the future of the band until they were all out of hospital. Ashley Hutchings was hospitalised the longest, and Simon Nicol, Richard Thompson, and Sandy Denny, the other three surviving members of the band, flew over to LA with their producer and manager, Joe Boyd, to recuperate there and get to know the American music scene. When they came back, the group all met up in the flat belonging to Denny’s boyfriend Trevor Lucas, and decided that they were going to continue the band. They made a few decisions then — they needed a new drummer, and as well as a drummer they wanted to get in Dave Swarbrick. Swarbrick had played violin on several tracks on Unhalfbricking as a session player, and they had all been thrilled to work with him. Swarbrick was one of the most experienced musicians on the British folk circuit. He had started out in the fifties playing guitar with Beryl Marriott’s Ceilidh Band before switching to fiddle, and in 1963, long before Fairport had formed, he had already appeared on TV with the Ian Campbell Folk Group, led by Ian Campbell, the father of Ali and Robin Campbell, later of UB40: [Excerpt: The Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Shanten Bells (medley on Hullaballoo!)”] He’d sung with Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd: [Excerpt: A.L. Lloyd, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” ] And he’d formed his hugely successful duo with Martin Carthy, releasing records like “Byker Hill” which are often considered among the best British folk music of all time: [Excerpt: Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, “Byker Hill”] By the time Fairport had invited him to play on Unhalfbricking, Swarbrick had already performed on twenty albums as a core band member, plus dozens more EPs, singles, and odd tracks on compilations. They had no reason to think they could actually get him to join their band. But they had three advantages. The first was that Swarbrick was sick of the traditional folk scene at the time, saying later “I didn’t like seven-eighths of the people involved in it, and it was extremely opportune to leave. I was suddenly presented with the possibilities of exploring the dramatic content of the songs to the full.” The second was that he was hugely excited to be playing with Richard Thompson, who was one of the most innovative guitarists of his generation, and Martin Carthy remembers him raving about Thompson after their initial sessions. (Carthy himself was and is no slouch on the guitar of course, and there was even talk of getting him to join the band at this point, though they decided against it — much to the relief of rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol, who is a perfectly fine player himself but didn’t want to be outclassed by *two* of the best guitarists in Britain at the same time). And the third was that Joe Boyd told him that Fairport were doing so well — they had a single just about to hit the charts with “Si Tu Dois Partir” — that he would only have to play a dozen gigs with Fairport in order to retire. As it turned out, Swarbrick would play with the group for a decade, and would never retire — I saw him on his last tour in 2015, only eight months before he died. The drummer the group picked was also a far more experienced musician than any of the rest, though in a very different genre. Dave Mattacks had no knowledge at all of the kind of music they played, having previously been a player in dance bands. When asked by Hutchings if he wanted to join the band, Mattacks’ response was “I don’t know anything about the music. I don’t understand it… I can’t tell one tune from another, they all sound the same… but if you want me to join the group, fine, because I really like it. I’m enjoying myself musically.” Mattacks brought a new level of professionalism to the band, thanks to his different background. Nicol said of him later “He was dilligent, clean, used to taking three white shirts to a gig… The application he could bring to his playing was amazing. With us, you only played well when you were feeling well.” This distinction applied to his playing as well. Nicol would later describe the difference between Mattacks’ drumming and Lamble’s by saying “Martin’s strength was as an imaginative drummer. DM came in with a strongly developed sense of rhythm, through keeping a big band of drunken saxophone players in order. A great time-keeper.” With this new line-up and a new sense of purpose, the group did as many of their contemporaries were doing and “got their heads together in the country”. Joe Boyd rented the group a mansion, Farley House, in Farley Chamberlayne, Hampshire, and they stayed there together for three months. At the start, the group seem to have thought that they were going to make another record like Unhalfbricking, with some originals, some songs by American songwriters, and a few traditional songs. Even after their stay in Farley Chamberlayne, in fact, they recorded a few of the American songs they’d rehearsed at the start of the process, Richard Farina’s “Quiet Joys of Brotherhood” and Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn’s “Ballad of Easy Rider”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Ballad of Easy Rider”] Indeed, the whole idea of “getting our heads together in the country” (as the cliche quickly became in the late sixties as half of the bands in Britain went through much the same kind of process as Fairport were doing — but usually for reasons more to do with drug burnout or trend following than recovering from serious life-changing trauma) seems to have been inspired by Bob Dylan and the Band getting together in Big Pink. But very quickly they decided to follow the lead of Ashley Hutchings, who had had something of a Damascene conversion to the cause of traditional English folk music. They were listening mostly to Music From Big Pink by the Band, and to the first album by Sweeney’s Men: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “The Handsome Cabin Boy”] And they decided that they were going to make something that was as English as those records were North American and Irish (though in the event there were also a few Scottish songs included on the record). Hutchings in particular was becoming something of a scholar of traditional music, regularly visiting Cecil Sharp House and having long conversations with A.L. Lloyd, discovering versions of different traditional songs he’d never encountered before. This was both amusing and bemusing Sandy Denny, who had joined a rock group in part to get away from traditional music; but she was comfortable singing the material, and knew a lot of it and could make a lot of suggestions herself. Swarbrick obviously knew the repertoire intimately, and Nicol was amenable, while Mattacks was utterly clueless about the folk tradition at this point but knew this was the music he wanted to make. Thompson knew very little about traditional music, and of all the band members except Denny he was the one who has shown the least interest in the genre in his subsequent career — but as we heard at the beginning, showing the least interest in the genre is a relative thing, and while Thompson was not hugely familiar with the genre, he *was* able to work with it, and was also more than capable of writing songs that fit in with the genre. Of the eleven songs on the album, which was titled Liege and Lief (which means, roughly, Lord and Loyalty), there were no cover versions of singer-songwriters. Eight were traditional songs, and three were originals, all written in the style of traditional songs. The album opened with “Come All Ye”, an introduction written by Denny and Hutchings (the only time the two would ever write together): [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Come All Ye”] The other two originals were songs where Thompson had written new lyrics to traditional melodies. On “Crazy Man Michael”, Swarbrick had said to Thompson that the tune to which he had set his new words was weaker than the lyrics, to which Thompson had replied that if Swarbrick felt that way he should feel free to write a new melody. He did, and it became the first of the small number of Thompson/Swarbrick collaborations: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Crazy Man Michael”] Thompson and Swarbrick would become a brief songwriting team, but as much as anything else it was down to proximity — the two respected each other as musicians, but never got on very well. In 1981 Swarbrick would say “Richard and I never got on in the early days of FC… we thought we did, but we never did. We composed some bloody good songs together, but it was purely on a basis of “you write that and I’ll write this, and we’ll put it together.” But we never sat down and had real good chats.” The third original on the album, and by far the most affecting, is another song where Thompson put lyrics to a traditional tune. In this case he thought he was putting the lyrics to the tune of “Willie O'Winsbury”, but he was basing it on a recording by Sweeney’s Men. The problem was that Sweeney’s Men had accidentally sung the lyrics of “Willie O'Winsbury'” to the tune of a totally different song, “Fause Foodrage”: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “Willie O’Winsbury”] Thompson took that melody, and set to it lyrics about loss and separation. Thompson has never been one to discuss the meanings of his lyrics in any great detail, and in the case of this one has said “I really don't know what it means. This song came out of a dream, and I pretty much wrote it as I dreamt it (it was the sixties), and didn't spend very long analyzing it. So interpret as you wish – or replace with your own lines.” But in the context of the traffic accident that had killed his tailor girlfriend and a bandmate, and injured most of his other bandmates, the lyrics about lonely travellers, the winding road, bruised and beaten sons, saying goodbye, and never cutting cloth, seem fairly self-explanatory: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Farewell, Farewell”] The rest of the album, though, was taken up by traditional tunes. There was a long medley of four different fiddle reels; a version of “Reynardine” (a song about a seductive man — or is he a fox? Or perhaps both — which had been recorded by Swarbrick and Carthy on their most recent album); a 19th century song about a deserter saved from the firing squad by Prince Albert; and a long take on “Tam Lin”, one of the most famous pieces in the Scottish folk music canon, a song that has been adapted in different ways by everyone from the experimental noise band Current 93 to the dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah to the comics writer Grant Morrison: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Tam Lin”] And “Matty Groves”, a song about a man killing his cheating wife and her lover, which actually has a surprisingly similar story to that of “1921” from another great concept album from that year, the Who’s Tommy. “Matty Groves” became an excuse for long solos and shows of instrumental virtuosity: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves”] The album was recorded in September 1969, after their return from their break in the country and a triumphal performance at the Royal Festival Hall, headlining over fellow Witchseason artists John and Beverly Martyn and Nick Drake. It became a classic of the traditional folk genre — arguably *the* classic of the traditional folk genre. In 2007 BBC Radio 2’s Folk Music Awards gave it an award for most influential folk album of all time, and while such things are hard to measure, I doubt there’s anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of British folk and folk-rock music who would not at least consider that a reasonable claim. But once again, by the time the album came out in November, the band had changed lineups yet again. There was a fundamental split in the band – on one side were Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, whose stance was, roughly, that Liege and Lief was a great experiment and a fun thing to do once, but really the band had two first-rate songwriters in themselves, and that they should be concentrating on their own new material, not doing these old songs, good as they were. They wanted to take the form of the traditional songs and use that form for new material — they wanted to make British folk-rock, but with the emphasis on the rock side of things. Hutchings, on the other hand, was equally sure that he wanted to make traditional music and go further down the rabbit hole of antiquity. With the zeal of the convert he had gone in a couple of years from being the leader of a band who were labelled “the British Jefferson Airplane” to becoming a serious scholar of traditional folk music. Denny was tired of touring, as well — she wanted to spend more time at home with Trevor Lucas, who was sleeping with other women when she was away and making her insecure. When the time came for the group to go on a tour of Denmark, Denny decided she couldn’t make it, and Hutchings was jubilant — he decided he was going to get A.L. Lloyd into the band in her place and become a *real* folk group. Then Denny reconsidered, and Hutchings was crushed. He realised that while he had always been the leader, he wasn’t going to be able to lead the band any further in the traditionalist direction, and quit the group — but not before he was delegated by the other band members to fire Denny. Until the publication of Richard Thompson’s autobiography in 2022, every book on the group or its members said that Denny quit the band again, which was presumably a polite fiction that the band agreed, but according to Thompson “Before we flew home, we decided to fire Sandy. I don't remember who asked her to leave – it was probably Ashley, who usually did the dirty work. She was reportedly shocked that we would take that step. She may have been fragile beneath the confident facade, but she still knew her worth.” Thompson goes on to explain that the reasons for kicking her out were that “I suppose we felt that in her mind she had already left” and that “We were probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, though there wasn't a name for it back then.” They had considered inviting Trevor Lucas to join the band to make Denny more comfortable, but came to the (probably correct) conclusion that while he was someone they got on well with personally, he would be another big ego in a band that already had several, and that being around Denny and Lucas’ volatile relationship would, in Thompson’s phrasing, “have not always given one a feeling of peace and stability.” Hutchings originally decided he was going to join Sweeney’s Men, but that group were falling apart, and their first rehearsal with Hutchings would also be their last as a group, with only Hutchings and guitarist and mandolin player Terry Woods left in the band. They added Woods’ wife Gay, and another couple, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, and formed a group called Steeleye Span, a name given them by Martin Carthy. That group, like Fairport, went to “get their heads together in the country” for three months and recorded an album of electric versions of traditional songs, Hark the Village Wait, on which Mattacks and another drummer, Gerry Conway, guested as Steeleye Span didn’t at the time have their own drummer: [Excerpt: Steeleye Span, “Blackleg Miner”] Steeleye Span would go on to have a moderately successful chart career in the seventies, but by that time most of the original lineup, including Hutchings, had left — Hutchings stayed with them for a few albums, then went on to form the first of a series of bands, all called the Albion Band or variations on that name, which continue to this day. And this is something that needs to be pointed out at this point — it is impossible to follow every single individual in this narrative as they move between bands. There is enough material in the history of the British folk-rock scene that someone could do a 500 Songs-style podcast just on that, and every time someone left Fairport, or Steeleye Span, or the Albion Band, or Matthews’ Southern Comfort, or any of the other bands we have mentioned or will mention, they would go off and form another band which would then fission, and some of its members would often join one of those other bands. There was a point in the mid-1970s where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport Convention while Fairport Convention had none. So just in order to keep the narrative anything like wieldy, I’m going to keep the narrative concentrated on the two figures from Fairport — Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson — whose work outside the group has had the most influence on the wider world of rock music more broadly, and only deal with the other members when, as they often did, their careers intersected with those two. That doesn’t mean the other members are not themselves hugely important musicians, just that their importance has been primarily to the folk side of the folk-rock genre, and so somewhat outside the scope of this podcast. While Hutchings decided to form a band that would allow him to go deeper and deeper into traditional folk music, Sandy Denny’s next venture was rather different. For a long time she had been writing far more songs than she had ever played for her bandmates, like “Nothing More”, a song that many have suggested is about Thompson: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Nothing More”] When Joe Boyd heard that Denny was leaving Fairport Convention, he was at first elated. Fairport’s records were being distributed by A&M in the US at that point, but Island Records was in the process of opening up a new US subsidiary which would then release all future Fairport product — *but*, as far as A&M were concerned, Sandy Denny *was* Fairport Convention. They were only interested in her. Boyd, on the other hand, loved Denny’s work intensely, but from his point of view *Richard Thompson* was Fairport Convention. If he could get Denny signed directly to A&M as a solo artist before Island started its US operations, Witchseason could get a huge advance on her first solo record, while Fairport could continue making records for Island — he’d have two lucrative acts, on different labels. Boyd went over and spoke to A&M and got an agreement in principle that they would give Denny a forty-thousand-dollar advance on her first solo album — twice what they were paying for Fairport albums. The problem was that Denny didn’t want to be a solo act. She wanted to be the lead singer of a band. She gave many reasons for this — the one she gave to many journalists was that she had seen a Judy Collins show and been impressed, but noticed that Collins’ band were definitely a “backing group”, and as she put it “But that's all they were – a backing group. I suddenly thought, If you're playing together on a stage you might as well be TOGETHER.” Most other people in her life, though, say that the main reason for her wanting to be in a band was her desire to be with her boyfriend, Trevor Lucas. Partly this was due to a genuine desire to spend more time with someone with whom she was very much in love, partly it was a fear that he would cheat on her if she was away from him for long periods of time, and part of it seems to have been Lucas’ dislike of being *too* overshadowed by his talented girlfriend — he didn’t mind acknowledging that she was a major talent, but he wanted to be thought of as at least a minor one. So instead of going solo, Denny formed Fotheringay, named after the song she had written for Fairport. This new band consisted at first of Denny on vocals and occasional piano, Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Lucas’ old Eclection bandmate Gerry Conway on drums. For a lead guitarist, they asked Richard Thompson who the best guitarist in Britain was, and he told them Albert Lee. Lee in turn brought in bass player Pat Donaldson, but this lineup of the band barely survived a fortnight. Lee *was* arguably the best guitarist in Britain, certainly a reasonable candidate if you could ever have a singular best (as indeed was Thompson himself), but he was the best *country* guitarist in Britain, and his style simply didn’t fit with Fotheringay’s folk-influenced songs. He was replaced by American guitarist Jerry Donahue, who was not anything like as proficient as Lee, but who was still very good, and fit the band’s style much better. The new group rehearsed together for a few weeks, did a quick tour, and then went into the recording studio to record their debut, self-titled, album. Joe Boyd produced the album, but admitted himself that he only paid attention to those songs he considered worthwhile — the album contained one song by Lucas, “The Ballad of Ned Kelly”, and two cover versions of American singer-songwriter material with Lucas singing lead. But everyone knew that the songs that actually *mattered* were Sandy Denny’s, and Boyd was far more interested in them, particularly the songs “The Sea” and “The Pond and the Stream”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “The Pond and the Stream”] Fotheringay almost immediately hit financial problems, though. While other Witchseason acts were used to touring on the cheap, all packed together in the back of a Transit van with inexpensive equipment, Trevor Lucas had ambitions of being a rock star and wanted to put together a touring production to match, with expensive transport and equipment, including a speaker system that got nicknamed “Stonehenge” — but at the same time, Denny was unhappy being on the road, and didn’t play many gigs. As well as the band itself, the Fotheringay album also featured backing vocals from a couple of other people, including Denny’s friend Linda Peters. Peters was another singer from the folk clubs, and a good one, though less well-known than Denny — at this point she had only released a couple of singles, and those singles seemed to have been as much as anything else released as a novelty. The first of those, a version of Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” had been released as by “Paul McNeill and Linda Peters”: [Excerpt: Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”] But their second single, a version of John D. Loudermilk’s “You’re Taking My Bag”, was released on the tiny Page One label, owned by Larry Page, and was released under the name “Paul and Linda”, clearly with the intent of confusing particularly gullible members of the record-buying public into thinking this was the McCartneys: [Excerpt: Paul and Linda, “You’re Taking My Bag”] Peters was though more financially successful than almost anyone else in this story, as she was making a great deal of money as a session singer. She actually did another session involving most of Fotheringay around this time. Witchseason had a number of excellent songwriters on its roster, and had had some success getting covers by people like Judy Collins, but Joe Boyd thought that they might possibly do better at getting cover versions if they were performed in less idiosyncratic arrangements. Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway went into the studio to record backing tracks, and vocals were added by Peters and another session singer, who according to some sources also provided piano. They cut songs by Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “You Get Brighter”] Ed Carter, formerly of The New Nadir but by this time firmly ensconced in the Beach Boys’ touring band where he would remain for the next quarter-century: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “I Don’t Mind”] John and Beverly Martyn, and Nick Drake: [Excerpt: Elton John, “Saturday Sun”] There are different lineups of musicians credited for those sessions in different sources, but I tend to believe that it’s mostly Fotheringay for the simple reason that Donahue says it was him, Donaldson and Conway who talked Lucas and Denny into the mistake that destroyed Fotheringay because of these sessions. Fotheringay were in financial trouble already, spending far more money than they were bringing in, but their album made the top twenty and they were getting respect both from critics and from the public — in September, Sandy Denny was voted best British female singer by the readers of Melody Maker in their annual poll, which led to shocked headlines in the tabloids about how this “unknown” could have beaten such big names as Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black. Only a couple of weeks after that, they were due to headline at the Albert Hall. It should have been a triumph. But Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway had asked that singing pianist to be their support act. As Donahue said later “That was a terrible miscast. It was our fault. He asked if [he] could do it. Actually Pat, Gerry and I had to talk Sandy and Trevor into [it]… We'd done these demos and the way he was playing – he was a wonderful piano player – he was sensitive enough. We knew very little about his stage-show. We thought he'd be a really good opener for us.” Unfortunately, Elton John was rather *too* good. As Donahue continued “we had no idea what he had in mind, that he was going to do the most incredible rock & roll show ever. He pretty much blew us off the stage before we even got on the stage.” To make matters worse, Fotheringay’s set, which was mostly comprised of new material, was underrehearsed and sloppy, and from that point on no matter what they did people were counting the hours until the band split up. They struggled along for a while though, and started working on a second record, with Boyd again producing, though as Boyd later said “I probably shouldn't have been producing the record. My lack of respect for the group was clear, and couldn't have helped the atmosphere. We'd put out a record that had sold disappointingly, A&M was unhappy. Sandy's tracks on the first record are among the best things she ever did – the rest of it, who cares? And the artwork, Trevor's sister, was terrible. It would have been one thing if I'd been unhappy with it and it sold, and the group was working all the time, making money, but that wasn't the case … I knew what Sandy was capable of, and it was very upsetting to me.” The record would not be released for thirty-eight years: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Wild Mountain Thyme”] Witchseason was going badly into debt. Given all the fissioning of bands that we’ve already been talking about, Boyd had been stretched thin — he produced sixteen albums in 1970, and almost all of them lost money for the company. And he was getting more and more disillusioned with the people he was producing. He loved Beverly Martyn’s work, but had little time for her abusive husband John, who was dominating her recording and life more and more and would soon become a solo artist while making her stay at home (and stealing her ideas without giving her songwriting credit). The Incredible String Band were great, but they had recently converted to Scientology, which Boyd found annoying, and while he was working with all sorts of exciting artists like Vashti Bunyan and Nico, he was finding himself less and less important to the artists he mentored. Fairport Convention were a good example of this. After Denny and Hutchings had left the group, they’d decided to carry on as an electric folk group, performing an equal mix of originals by the Swarbrick and Thompson songwriting team and arrangements of traditional songs. The group were now far enough away from the “British Jefferson Airplane” label that they decided they didn’t need a female vocalist — and more realistically, while they’d been able to replace Judy Dyble, nobody was going to replace Sandy Denny. Though it’s rather surprising when one considers Thompson’s subsequent career that nobody seems to have thought of bringing in Denny’s friend Linda Peters, who was dating Joe Boyd at the time (as Denny had been before she met Lucas) as Denny’s replacement. Instead, they decided that Swarbrick and Thompson were going to share the vocals between them. They did, though, need a bass player to replace Hutchings. Swarbrick wanted to bring in Dave Pegg, with whom he had played in the Ian Campbell Folk Group, but the other band members initially thought the idea was a bad one. At the time, while they respected Swarbrick as a musician, they didn’t think he fully understood rock and roll yet, and they thought the idea of getting in a folkie who had played double bass rather than an electric rock bassist ridiculous. But they auditioned him to mollify Swarbrick, and found that he was exactly what they needed. As Joe Boyd later said “All those bass lines were great, Ashley invented them all, but he never could play them that well. He thought of them, but he was technically not a terrific bass player. He was a very inventive, melodic, bass player, but not a very powerful one technically. But having had the part explained to him once, Pegg was playing it better than Ashley had ever played it… In some rock bands, I think, ultimately, the bands that sound great, you can generally trace it to the bass player… it was at that point they became a great band, when they had Pegg.” The new lineup of Fairport decided to move in together, and found a former pub called the Angel, into which all the band members moved, along with their partners and children (Thompson was the only one who was single at this point) and their roadies. The group lived together quite happily, and one gets the impression that this was the period when they were most comfortable with each other, even though by this point they were a disparate group with disparate tastes, in music as in everything else. Several people have said that the only music all the band members could agree they liked at this point was the first two albums by The Band. With the departure of Hutchings from the band, Swarbrick and Thompson, as the strongest personalities and soloists, became in effect the joint leaders of the group, and they became collaborators as songwriters, trying to write new songs that were inspired by traditional music. Thompson described the process as “let’s take one line of this reel and slow it down and move it up a minor third and see what that does to it; let’s take one line of this ballad and make a whole song out of it. Chopping up the tradition to find new things to do… like a collage.” Generally speaking, Swarbrick and Thompson would sit by the fire and Swarbrick would play a melody he’d been working on, the two would work on it for a while, and Thompson would then go away and write the lyrics. This is how the two came up with songs like the nine-minute “Sloth”, a highlight of the next album, Full House, and one that would remain in Fairport’s live set for much of their career: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth”] “Sloth” was titled that way because Thompson and Swarbrick were working on two tunes, a slow one and a fast one, and they jokingly named them “Sloth” and “Fasth”, but the latter got renamed to “Walk Awhile”, while “Sloth” kept its working title. But by this point, Boyd and Thompson were having a lot of conflict in the studio. Boyd was never the most technical of producers — he was one of those producers whose job is to gently guide the artists in the studio and create a space for the music to flourish, rather than the Joe Meek type with an intimate technical knowledge of the studio — and as the artists he was working with gained confidence in their own work they felt they had less and less need of him. During the making of the Full House album, Thompson and Boyd, according to Boyd, clashed on everything — every time Boyd thought Thompson had done a good solo, Thompson would say to erase it and let him have another go, while every time Boyd thought Thompson could do better, Thompson would say that was the take to keep. One of their biggest clashes was over Thompson’s song “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”, which was originally intended for release on the album, and is included in current reissues of it: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”] Thompson had written that song inspired by what he thought was the unjust treatment of Alex Bramham, the driver in Fairport’s fatal car crash, by the courts — Bramham had been given a prison sentence of a few months for dangerous driving, while the group members thought he had not been at fault. Boyd thought it was one of the best things recorded for the album, but Thompson wasn’t happy with his vocal — there was one note at the top of the melody that he couldn’t quite hit — and insisted it be kept off the record, even though that meant it would be a shorter album than normal. He did this at such a late stage that early copies of the album actually had the title printed on the sleeve, but then blacked out. He now says in his autobiography “I could have persevered, double-tracked the voice, warmed up for longer – anything. It was a good track, and the record was lacking without it. When the album was re-released, the track was restored with a more confident vocal, and it has stayed there ever since.” During the sessions for Full House the group also recorded one non-album single, Thompson and Swarbrick’s “Now Be Thankful”: [Excerpt, Fairport Convention, “Now Be Thankful”] The B-side to that was a medley of two traditional tunes plus a Swarbrick original, but was given the deliberately ridiculous title “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”] The B. McKenzie in the title was a reference to the comic-strip character Barry McKenzie, a stereotype drunk Australian created for Private Eye magazine by the comedian Barry Humphries (later to become better known for his Dame Edna Everage character) but the title was chosen for one reason only — to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the song with the longest title. Which they did, though they were later displaced by the industrial band Test Dept, and their song “Long Live British Democracy Which Flourishes and Is Constantly Perfected Under the Immaculate Guidance of the Great, Honourable, Generous and Correct Margaret Hilda Thatcher. She Is the Blue Sky in the Hearts of All Nations. Our People Pay Homage and Bow in Deep Respect and Gratitude to Her. The Milk of Human Kindness”. Full House got excellent reviews in the music press, with Rolling Stone saying “The music shows that England has finally gotten her own equivalent to The Band… By calling Fairport an English equivalent of the Band, I meant that they have soaked up enough of the tradition of their countryfolk that it begins to show all over, while they maintain their roots in rock.” Off the back of this, the group went on their first US tour, culminating in a series of shows at the Troubadour in LA, on the same bill as Rick Nelson, which were recorded and later released as a live album: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth (live)”] The Troubadour was one of the hippest venues at the time, and over their residency there the group got seen by many celebrities, some of whom joined them on stage. The first was Linda Ronstadt, who initially demurred, saying she didn’t know any of their songs. On being told they knew all of hers, she joined in with a rendition of “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”. Thompson was later asked to join Ronstadt’s backing band, who would go on to become the Eagles, but he said later of this offer “I would have hated it. I’d have hated being on the road with four or five miserable Americans — they always seem miserable. And if you see them now, they still look miserable on stage — like they don’t want to be there and they don’t like each other.” The group were also joined on stage at the Troubadour on one memorable night by some former bandmates of Pegg’s. Before joining the Ian Campbell Folk Group, Pegg had played around the Birmingham beat scene, and had been in bands with John Bonham and Robert Plant, who turned up to the Troubadour with their Led Zeppelin bandmate Jimmy Page (reports differ on whether the fourth member of Zeppelin, John Paul Jones, also came along). They all got up on stage together and jammed on songs like “Hey Joe”, “Louie Louie”, and various old Elvis tunes. The show was recorded, and the tapes are apparently still in the possession of Joe Boyd, who has said he refuses to release them in case he is murdered by the ghost of Peter Grant. According to Thompson, that night ended in a three-way drinking contest between Pegg, Bonham, and Janis Joplin, and it’s testament to how strong the drinking culture is around Fairport and the British folk scene in general that Pegg outdrank both of them. According to Thompson, Bonham was found naked by a swimming pool two days later, having missed two gigs. For all their hard rock image, Led Zeppelin were admirers of a lot of the British folk and folk-rock scene, and a few months later Sandy Denny would become the only outside vocalist ever to appear on a Led Zeppelin record when she duetted with Plant on “The Battle of Evermore” on the group’s fourth album: [Excerpt: Led Zeppelin, “The Battle of Evermore”] Denny would never actually get paid for her appearance on one of the best-selling albums of all time. That was, incidentally, not the only session that Denny was involved in around this time — she also sang on the soundtrack to a soft porn film titled Swedish Fly Girls, whose soundtrack was produced by Manfred Mann: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow?”] Shortly after Fairport’s trip to America, Joe Boyd decided he was giving up on Witchseason. The company was now losing money, and he was finding himself having to produce work for more and more acts as the various bands fissioned. The only ones he really cared about were Richard Thompson, who he was finding it more and more difficult to work with, Nick Drake, who wanted to do his next album with just an acoustic guitar anyway, Sandy Denny, who he felt was wasting her talents in Fotheringay, and Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band, who was more distant since his conversion to Scientology. Boyd did make some attempts to keep the company going. On a trip to Sweden, he negotiated an agreement with the manager and publisher of a Swedish band whose songs he’d found intriguing, the Hep Stars. Boyd was going to publish their songs in the UK, and in return that publisher, Stig Anderson, would get the rights to Witchseason’s catalogue in Scandinavia — a straight swap, with no money changing hands. But before Boyd could get round to signing the paperwork, he got a better offer from Mo Ostin of Warners — Ostin wanted Boyd to come over to LA and head up Warners’ new film music department. Boyd sold Witchseason to Island Records and moved to LA with his fiancee Linda Peters, spending the next few years working on music for films like Deliverance and A Clockwork Orange, as well as making his own documentary about Jimi Hendrix, and thus missed out on getting the UK publishing rights for ABBA, and all the income that would have brought him, for no money. And it was that decision that led to the breakup of Fotheringay. Just before Christmas 1970, Fotheringay were having a difficult session, recording the track “John the Gun”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “John the Gun”] Boyd got frustrated and kicked everyone out of the session, and went for a meal and several drinks with Denny. He kept insisting that she should dump the band and just go solo, and then something happened that the two of them would always describe differently. She asked him if he would continue to produce her records if she went solo, and he said he would. According to Boyd’s recollection of the events, he meant that he would fly back from California at some point to produce her records. According to Denny, he told her that if she went solo he would stay in Britain and not take the job in LA. This miscommunication was only discovered after Denny told the rest of Fotheringay after the Christmas break that she was splitting the band. Jerry Donahue has described that as the worst moment of his life, and Denny felt very guilty about breaking up a band with some of her closest friends in — and then when Boyd went over to the US anyway she felt a profound betrayal. Two days before Fotheringay’s final concert, in January 1971, Sandy Denny signed a solo deal with Island records, but her first solo album would not end up produced by Joe Boyd. Instead, The North Star Grassman and the Ravens was co-produced by Denny, John Wood — the engineer who had worked with Boyd on pretty much everything he’d produced, and Richard Thompson, who had just quit Fairport Convention, though he continued living with them at the Angel, at least until a truck crashed into the building in February 1971, destroying its entire front wall and forcing them to relocate. The songs chosen for The North Star Grassman and the Ravens reflected the kind of choices Denny would make on her future albums, and her eclectic taste in music. There was, of course, the obligatory Dylan cover, and the traditional folk ballad “Blackwaterside”, but there was also a cover version of Brenda Lee’s “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”] Most of the album, though, was made up of originals about various people in Denny’s life, like “Next Time Around”, about her ex-boyfriend Jackson C Frank: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Next Time Around”] The album made the top forty in the UK — Denny’s only solo album to do so — and led to her once again winning the “best female singer” award in Melody Maker’s readers’ poll that year — the male singer award was won by Rod Stewart. Both Stewart and Denny appeared the next year on the London Symphony Orchestra’s all-star version of The Who’s Tommy, which had originally been intended as a vehicle for Stewart before Roger Daltrey got involved. Stewart’s role was reduced to a single song, “Pinball Wizard”, while Denny sang on “It’s a Boy”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “It’s a Boy”] While Fotheringay had split up, all the band members play on The North Star Grassman and the Ravens. Guitarists Donahue and Lucas only play on a couple of the tracks, with Richard Thompson playing most of the guitar on the record. But Fotheringay’s rhythm section of Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway play on almost every track. Another musician on the album, Ian Whiteman, would possibly have a profound effect on the future direction of Richard Thompson’s career and life. Whiteman was the former keyboard player for the mod band The Action, having joined them just before they became the blues-rock band Mighty Baby. But Mighty Baby had split up when all of the band except the lead singer had converted to Islam. Richard Thompson was on his own spiritual journey at this point, and became a Sufi – the same branch of Islam as Whiteman – soon after the session, though Thompson has said that his conversion was independent of Whiteman’s. The two did become very close and work together a lot in the mid-seventies though. Thompson had supposedly left Fairport because he was writing material that wasn’t suited to the band, but he spent more than a year after quitting the group working on sessions rather than doing anything with his own material, and these sessions tended to involve the same core group of musicians. One of the more unusual was a folk-rock supergroup called The Bunch, put together by Trevor Lucas. Richard Branson had recently bought a recording studio, and wanted a band to test it out before opening it up for commercial customers, so with this free studio time Lucas decided to record a set of fifties rock and roll covers. He gathered together Thompson, Denny, Whiteman, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Pat Donaldson, Gerry Conway, pianist Tony Cox, the horn section that would later form the core of the Average White Band, and Linda Peters, who had now split up with Joe Boyd and returned to the UK, and who had started dating Thompson. They recorded an album of covers of songs by Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Johnny Otis and others: [Excerpt: The Bunch, “Willie and the Hand Jive”] The early seventies was a hugely productive time for this group of musicians, as they all continued playing on each other’s projects. One notable album was No Roses by Shirley Collins, which featured Thompson, Mattacks, Whiteman, Simon Nicol, Lal and Mike Waterson, and Ashley Hutchings, who was at that point married to Collins, as well as some more unusual musicians like the free jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill: [Excerpt: Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band, “Claudy Banks”] Collins was at the time the most respected female singer in British traditional music, and already had a substantial career including a series of important records made with her sister Dolly, work with guitarists like Davey Graham, and time spent in the 1950s collecting folk songs in the Southern US with her then partner Alan Lomax – according to Collins she did much of the actual work, but Lomax only mentioned her in a single sentence in his book on this work. Some of the same group of musicians went on to work on an album of traditional Morris dancing tunes, titled Morris On, credited to “Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield”, with Collins singing lead on two tracks: [Excerpt: Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield with Shirley Collins, “The Willow Tree”] Thompson thought that that album was the best of the various side projects he was involved in at the time, comparing it favourably to Rock On, which he thought was rather slight, saying later “Conceptually, Fairport, Ashley and myself and Sandy were developing a more fragile style of music that nobody else was particularly interested in, a British Folk Rock idea that had a logical development to it, although we all presented it our own way. Morris On was rather more true to what we were doing. Rock On was rather a retro step. I'm not sure it was lasting enough as a record but Sandy did sing really well on the Buddy Holly songs.” Hutchings used the musicians on No Roses and Morris On as the basis for his band the Albion Band, which continues to this day. Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks both quit Fairport to join the Albion Band, though Mattacks soon returned. Nicol would not return to Fairport for several years, though, and for a long period in the mid-seventies Fairport Convention had no original members. Unfortunately, while Collins was involved in the Albion Band early on, she and Hutchings ended up divorcing, and the stress from the divorce led to Collins developing spasmodic dysphonia, a stress-related illness which makes it impossible for the sufferer to sing. She did eventually regain her vocal ability, but between 1978 and 2016 she was unable to perform at all, and lost decades of her career. Richard Thompson occasionally performed with the Albion Band early on, but he was getting stretched a little thin with all these sessions. Linda Peters said later of him “When I came back from America, he was working in Sandy’s band, and doing sessions by the score. Always with Pat Donaldson and Dave Mattacks. Richard would turn up with his guitar, one day he went along to do a session with one of those folkie lady singers — and there were Pat and DM. They all cracked. Richard smashed his amp and said “Right! No more sessions!” In 1972 he got round to releasing his first solo album, Henry the Human Fly, which featured guest appearances by Linda Peters and Sandy Denny among others: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “The Angels Took My Racehorse Away”] Unfortunately, while that album has later become regarded as one of the classics of its genre, at the time it was absolutely slated by the music press. The review in Melody Maker, for example, read in part “Some of Richard Thompson’s ideas sound great – which is really the saving grace of this album, because most of the music doesn’t. The tragedy is that Thompson’s “British rock music” is such an unconvincing concoction… Even the songs that do integrate rock and traditional styles of electric guitar rhythms and accordion and fiddle decoration – and also include explicit, meaningful lyrics are marred by bottle-up vocals, uninspiring guitar phrases and a general lack of conviction in performance.” Henry the Human Fly was released in the US by Warners, who had a reciprocal licensing deal with Island (and for whom Joe Boyd was working at the time, which may have had something to do with that) but according to Thompson it became the lowest-selling record that Warners ever put out (though I’ve also seen that claim made about Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle, another album that has later been rediscovered). Thompson was hugely depressed by this reaction, and blamed his own singing. Happily, though, by this point he and Linda had become a couple — they would marry in 1972 — and they started playing folk clubs as a duo, or sometimes in a trio with Simon Nicol. Thompson was also playing with Sandy Denny’s backing band at this point, and played on every track on her second solo album, Sandy. This album was meant to be her big commercial breakthrough, with a glamorous cover photo by David Bailey, and with a more American sound, including steel guitar by Sneaky Pete Kleinow of the Flying Burrito Brothers (whose overdubs were supervised in LA by Joe Boyd): [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Tomorrow is a Long Time”] The album was given a big marketing push by Island, and “Listen, Listen” was made single of the week on the Radio 1 Breakfast show: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Listen, Listen”] But it did even worse than the previous album, sending her into something of a depression. Linda Thompson (as the former Linda Peters now was) said of this period “After the Sandy album, it got her down that her popularity didn't suddenly increase in leaps and bounds, and that was the start of her really fretting about the way her career was going. Things only escalated after that. People like me or Martin Carthy or Norma Waterson would think, ‘What are you on about? This is folk music.'” After Sandy’s release, Denny realised she could no longer afford to tour with a band, and so went back to performing just acoustically or on piano. The only new music to be released by either of these ex-members of Fairport Convention in 1973 was, oddly, on an album by the band they were no longer members of. After Thompson had left Fairport, the group had managed to release two whole albums with the same lineup — Swarbrick, Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks. But then Nicol and Mattacks had both quit the band to join the Albion Band with their former bandmate Ashley Hutchings, leading to a situation where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport plus their longtime drummer while Fairport Convention itself had no original members and was down to just Swarbrick and Pegg. Needing to fulfil their contracts, they then recruited three former members of Fotheringay — Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, Donahue on lead guitar, and Conway on drums. Conway was only a session player at the time, and Mattacks soon returned to the band, but Lucas and Donahue became full-time members. This new lineup of Fairport Convention released two albums in 1973, widely regarded as the group’s most inconsistent records, and on the title track of the first, “Rosie”, Richard Thompson guested on guitar, with Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson on backing vocals: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Rosie”] Neither Sandy Denny nor Richard Thompson released a record themselves in 1973, but in neither case was this through the artists’ choice. The record industry was changing in the early 1970s, as we’ll see in later episodes, and was less inclined to throw good money after bad in the pursuit of art. Island Records prided itself on being a home for great artists, but it was still a business, and needed to make money. We’ll talk about the OPEC oil crisis and its effect on the music industry much more when the podcast gets to 1973, but in brief, the production of oil by the US peaked in 1970 and started to decrease, leading to them importing more and more oil from the Middle East. As a result of this, oil prices rose slowly between 1971 and 1973, then very quickly towards the end of 1973 as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict that year. As vinyl is made of oil, suddenly producing records became much more expensive, and in this period a lot of labels decided not to release already-completed albums, until what they hoped would be a brief period of shortages passed. Both Denny and Thompson recorded albums at this point that got put to one side by Island. In the case of Thompson, it was the first album by Richard and Linda as a duo, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Today, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, and as one of the two masterpieces that bookended Richard and Linda’s career as a duo and their marriage. But when they recorded the album, full of Richard’s dark songs, it was the opposite of commercial. Even a song that’s more or less a boy-girl song, like “Has He Got a Friend for Me?” has lyrics like “He wouldn’t notice me passing by/I could be in the gutter, or dangling down from a tree” [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “Has He got a Friend For Me?”] While something like “The Calvary Cross” is oblique and haunted, and seems to cast a pall over the entire album: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “The Calvary Cross”] The album itself had been cheap to make — it had been recorded in only a week, with Thompson bringing in musicians he knew well and had worked with a lot previously to cut the tracks as-live in only a handful of takes — but Island didn’t think it was worth releasing. The record stayed on the shelf for nearly a year after recording, until Island got a new head of A&R, Richard Williams. Williams said of the album’s release “Muff Winwood had been doing A&R, but he was more interested in production… I had a conversation with Muff as soon as I got there, and he said there are a few hangovers, some outstanding problems. And one of them was Richard Thompson. He said there’s this album we gave him the money to make — which was I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight — and nobody’s very interested in it. Henry the Human Fly had been a bit of a commercial disappointment, and although Island was altruistic and independent and known for only recording good stuff, success was important… Either a record had to do well or somebody had to believe in it a lot. And it seemed as if neither of those things were true at that point of Richard.” Williams, though, was hugely impressed when he listened to the album. He compared Richard Thompson’s guitar playing to John Coltrane’s sax, and called Thompson “the folk poet of the rainy streets”, but also said “Linda brightened it, made it more commercial. and I thought that “Bright Lights” itself seemed a really commercial song.” The rest of the management at Island got caught up in Williams’ enthusiasm, and even decided to release the title track as a single: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Neither single nor album charted — indeed it would not be until 1991 that Richard Thompson would make a record that made the top forty in the UK — but the album got enough critical respect that Richard and Linda released two albums the year after. The first of these, Hokey Pokey, is a much more upbeat record than their previous one — Richard Thompson has called it “quite a music-hall influenced record” and cited the influence of George Formby and Harry Lauder. For once, the claim of music hall influence is audible in the music. Usually when a British musician is claimed to have a music ha

This week's show, after another Beach Boys belt: brand new Sloan, Black Watch, Jeffrey Runnings, Royal Blunder, Valery Trails, Deep Sea Diver, and Peter Baldrachi, plus The Byrds, Brian Wilson, Woody Herman, Immortals, Jan & Dean, Honeys, and Marty Rob...

John Hall has been CEO of the family-run Rickenbacker guitar company since 1984, right around when R.E.M.'s Peter Buck was inspiring a generation of jangly bands with his Rick riffs. The Beatles had led a Rickenbacker surge 20 years earlier as John Lennon and George Harrison played Ricks in A Hard Day's Night and prompted the Byrds' Roger McGuinn to get a 12-string Rickenbacker and basically to invent folk rock. Hall tells a hell of a story about meeting the Beatles and McGuinn, and he reflects on company's history, which dates back to 1931. He explains why Rickenbacker still makes all of its guitars at one California factory instead of expanding its production; discusses the company's fierce trademark protection; weighs distinctions among hollow-bodied, solid-bodied, 6-string and 12-string models; addresses whether pricey vintage Ricks are actually better than new ones; and, once and for all, clears up the pronunciation of “Rickenbacker.”

Especial mensual dedicado a recordar singles que alcanzaron su puesto más alto en las listas de pop de EEUU en este mismo mes de hace 60 años.Playlist;(sintonía) BERT KAEMPFTER and HIS ORCHESTRA “Three o’clock in the morning” (top 33)THE SUPREMES “Back in my arms again” (top 1)THE FOUR TOPS “I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” (top 1)THE BYRDS “Mr Tambourine man” (top 1)SAM THE SHAM and THE PHARAOHS “Wooly Bully” (top 2)TOM and JERRIO “Boo-ga-loo” (top 57)THE ANIMALS “Bring it all home to me” (top 32)FREDDIE and THE DREAMERS “Do the Freddie” (top 18)ESTHER PHILLIPS “And I love him” (top 54)THE BEAU BRUMMELS “Just a little” (top 8)BOBBY GOLDSBORO “Voodoo woman” (top 27)THE O’JAYS “Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)” (top 48)CHUCK JACKSON and MAXINE BROWN “Something you got” (top 55)FONTELLA BASS and BOBBY McCLURE “You'll Miss Me (When I'm Gone)” (top 91)GENE PITNEY “Last chance to turn around” (top 13)GENE CHANDLER “Nothing can stop me” (top 18)ROGER MILLER “Engine engine #9” (top 7)THE OVATIONS (featuring Louis Williams) “It’s wonderful to be in love” (top 61)THE RONETTES “Is this What I Get For Loving You?” (top 75)Escuchar audio

In this episode I welcomed Greg Yows to The Survival Podcast.  Greg is a great friend to both the show and me personally.  Together we wrote “The Revolution is You” our show theme. When asked about himself Greg says, “I am a simple songwriter. The hippies in the 60s had their “protest” bards in the form of Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Janice Joplin, John Lennon, Joan Baez…the list goes on. Now, I ain't claimin' to have their skill. But I have just as much passion for my cause. And that cause is making sure my kids enjoy freedom from the … Continue reading →

Send us a textOn this episode, we discuss Grievous Angel, the last album recorded by one of the most interesting, tragic, and influential people in modern music: Gram Parsons.   In just six short years, from 1967 until his death in the fall of 1973, Gram Parson help pioneer what would become known as country rock, or what he preferred to call  "Cosmic American Music." In those six years, he made several landmark albums with the International Submarine Band, the Byrds, and the Flying Burrito Brothers, as well recording two solo albums. None were commercially successful at the time of their release, but they cast a long shadow on the music of the later half of the 20th Century, and continue to do so today. Its difficult for modern listeners to understand how unique and innovative Parsons vision of blending elements of country, rock, folk, and (most importantly) soul was at the time because it has influenced so much that came after that its uniqueness gets lost crowd.For Grievous Angel, Parsons was able to get some of the best musicians in the business backing him. He also could recognize talent when he saw it and knew having Emmy Lou Harris as his duet partner would create magic, which it most certainly did. Released just months after Parsons untimely death, and containing some of his most beautiful, songs Grievous Angel is a remarkable and poignant album that chronicles Parsons influences and his devotion to traditional country music, while showcasing his ability to blend those influences with other genres into something entirely original.  Visit us at www.tappingvinyl.com.

I'm reading and talking about Ted Gioia's "Immersive Humanities Course," 52 weeks of World Classics.Reading a familiar text in a bigger reading list like this offers its own special challenges. I start with a little insight about what to do when that happens.I think the best way to talk about these very familiar books is to take them one at a time. Then I have some thoughts about translations (again) and reading in general. Genesis: This is a much longer book than you think! The story starts out very broad and then narrows to tell how God decides to work through a man named Abram. We then see how God continues to work through now-Abraham's family, through Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. None of these men are perfect, or even very heroic except possibly Joseph, but God uses them anyway. Genesis is different than the other very old texts (religious and otherwise) we've read in this schedule, and it's certainly quite different than the Greek philosophy. We see a God who is personal and emotional, capable of anger and also great love, and who is both all-powerful and yet interested in every individual in the entire world.Ecclesiastes: This is a poem of sorts, and you definitely know part of it because of the Byrds' “Turn Turn Turn.” The main character, the Preacher (likely King Solomon), reflects at the end of his days on “What's it all for?” He never settles on a real answer but reflects on how to live, so in its themes it is a lot more like Plato or Aristotle. It's not didactic like Confucius' Analects. It feels a lot more like the Dhammapada, but less fatalistic and actually lovelier in its construction. I think the weariness of Ecclesiastes speaks to the human condition, common across time and geography.Matthew: The first Gospel opens with Jesus' genealogy through Joseph, and I think Matthew's emphasis as he relates the story of Jesus' life is on the fact that the very people who should have been most willing to hear the message did not. Matthew is rooted in Jewish scripture, continually quoting prophets as he relates Jesus' ministry. The book starts with three chapters known as the Sermon on the Mount, which is harder to read straight through than I expected. It is a lot of sayings and aphorisms, not a lot of story, and you know by now how I feel about that. The book then moves into more narrative as the miracles increase in type and scope, leading to the crucifixion. The teachings from Jesus and Matthew's own writing are aimed squarely at the Jewish leaders here, pointing out what they are missing and their refusal to see Jesus for who he is.Mark: This is the shortest Gospel, and I also think of it as the “immediately” Gospel. Mark uses that word at almost every transition from one scene to another, and it makes the book feel very action-oriented. I felt like Mark was sitting with me saying, “Let me tell you what happened!”Luke: Luke is not an eyewitness at all, and even opens the book up saying he has talked to lots of people so he can get an accurate history put down. Luke's always been my favorite for a variety of reasons...John: But I was wrong. John is the single best piece of writing I have read so far in this program. It is amazing. The entire book is crafted beautifully, and it's now my favorite Gospel. Also, it has the very best ending you could hope for. Read it.Romans: Okay, full disclosure, my Bible study group is doing Romans this year, walking slowly through Paul's longest letter. Coming to Romans after the previous readings, I was absolutely struck by the vigor of Paul's writing. It's energetic, masculine, wide-ranging and urgent. It is deeply personal in a way that none of the previous readings were. I loved reading it in one big chunk and offer reflections on how...